5 Ways to Harness Your Online Reputation For Blogging Success

Quick: Picture that bad choice for a prom or bridesmaid’s dress years ago. Or the haircut that your mom made you get—the one that looked like a Tupperware bowl had been placed on your head. The one that didn’t go over very well at school.

Some memories do last forever, don’t they? This is true. But, hey, they are just memories. All good. No real damage, right?

Quicker: Remember one rumor that floated around your high school years ago. Who was doing what with whom>?! Remember how it spread like wild fire? And how old are you now? How long has that rumor stuck with you? Those were rumors. No proof!

But your Facebook political blurt-out a few years ago—or last week? A scathing reaction you made or to which you responded? Or—the biggie—a “little comment” about a previous account or client or employer with whom you worked?

Brace yourself. That “just having a bad day” comment can have a long-lasting effect. That’s the stuff that can be cut and pasted and repeated and posted—everywhere. Don’t let that happen to you.

The good news is that there are some strong strategies you may employ to improve your online reputation:

Always tell the truth. Remember those rules you learned as a kid? This was one of the most important ones. To increase your readership, don’t embellish. Your blog will succeed if you establish this intention. For example, Intentional Growth does a great job of establishing credibility.

Build positive relationships. When you blog, you’re building relationships with people and organizations. Be aware of building as many of these positive relationships as possible. Follow other blogs; they’ll reply in kind. Appreciate them by directly commenting to them and about them, and keep the language fun and enjoyable. Upbeat blogs such as RapidBuyr’s exemplify this technique really well!

Keep calm and carry on. If you do get that occasional negative poster, be sure to keep calm and carry on, just like the t-shirt says. The goal is to make it right. Do it quickly, or the number of your blog followers could dramatically decrease. Your reaction can and will be around for a long time. Act accordingly. One particular blog, Socialnomics, shares even more insight about how to handle negative feedback on your blog. Damage control can be painless if you pay attention to just a few key strategies.

Go viral, go viral, and then … go viral. The more viral your blog goes, the stronger your reputation and following will be. Bigger is better. Get that blog up on every social media site you’re connected to, and consider providing incentives for folks who “share” your blog through their own social media. An angel investor, Haig Kayserian, shares the story of how his blog went viral, and it’s filled with great insights about how to get yours to do the same. “Word of mouth,” move over. There’s a new kid in town!

Spread good karma! We all know that it just takes 30 seconds with the news, a newspaper, or a headline on your phone or tablet to remind you that life can present some pretty ugly stuff. Let people take a break from that by logging on and spending some time with your fun, upbeat, charismatic, and charming blog. When they like you, they’ll follow you. Just ask Oprah. Or Jimmy Fallon. They got the goods! A personal favorite for spreading good vibes is the Etsy blog.

These five strategies can help you to attain and maintain a favorable reputation, and the great news is that there are now easy and efficient websites that you can use that will keep an eye on that reputation.

Sites like Reputation.com are fantastic for addressing the challenge of tracking your online reputation. They can monitor and guide you through reputation management for your businesses and your blog, and they have figured out how to make it easy for you! That’s a good day at the office right there!

Valerie Wilson is a freelance writer who writes on a variety of topics including creating strong workplace communications and spreading some good karma.

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Thanks Valerie…
Telling the truth. This seems to be something of the distant past. Top down, from our politicians to the gardener it seems to not exist. I was not raised that way. Telling the truth is a way of life for me and it is my belief that those who write articles that are authentic, honest and transparent will always come out on top, in the long run.
You also hit on some other key points about building positive relationships. Why it it that most of the news articles that we read are about someone doing their best to break someone else down. When I see that, the authenticity of the author becomes suspect.
Great article and thanks.

Some solid advice Valerie. Number 3 is key and probably the most challenging for many. Responding to a strongly negative or unnecessarily harsh comment on your blog or social profile in a positive manner is sometimes hard, darn near impossible but you will always be glad you did take the higher road once your blood stops boiling, even if after a good night sleep. Act rashly with emotion and potentially regret it for a long time. Besides, its fun as fight negative comments with nice responses as it confuses the attacker and often diffuses situation and will always leave you looking better in the light.

Valerie, as a food blogger I don’t really have to deal with a lot of negativity, but your tips make a lot of sense. Number 5 would be most important to me on those days when I’m feeling especially strongly about the issues surrounding food production. Though I like to touch on my views occasionally and hope that some readers might be inspired to buy organic, sustainably and ethically produced food, I really like to keep it light and just encourage people and families to have fun in the kitchen and at the dinner table.

It’s imperative for a blogger (or a business, or a person) to regularly monitor what’s being said about their name, and their brand online. An online reputation can spread fast and it’s wise to stay on top of it, so you can do damage control if something negative is getting traction. Google Alerts is pretty good, but doesn’t track social mentions. There are other options for tracking social mentions as well.

It takes some careful thought when responding to a negative comment, while one doesn’t want to take too long to respond, it’s wise to draft your response and walk away from it for a moment so you can view it with fresh perspective prior to posting it.

Good point, Amy. Alerts and monitoring mentions of your name/brand is also important so you can find your fans. It’s just as important to find the people who like your stuff so you can reach out to them and fan the flames of fandom!

With all these things proper SEO is necessary. It doesn’t matter how much people or google is against off page SEO but the real thing is, you need to show what youve got. writing great content now a days is not going to make you popular. guest posting and article writing to promote your stuff is mandatory. its like makreitng for your company.

Fantastic post, Valerie – all your points are simple and easy to apply.

One thing that I’ve noticed with my blog are the number of people who approach me to write about them or promote their business/product/cause but don’t offer anything in return. I’m not asking for money (each time), but I find it interesting that people are so persistent when it comes to asking for social media help and PR, but don’t think to offer something in exchange. Nor do they take the time to introduce themselves or get to know me before asking for something.

You may ask a good friend for $50, but would you ask a total stranger?

Your quotes ” Go viral, go viral, and then… go viral ” – I could not agree more. “Word of mouth” – also extremely important especially with brands. Spread good karma! – this is about being honest and always acting in the customers/readers best interests.

Thanks for the valuable information! Nowadays people really tend to forget the ethics of blog posting and these tips really do help writers get the right mindset needed to become better writers. Number 3: Keep calm and carry on in particular is something that every blogger has to deal with and any negativity can really bring you down so thank goodness for Number 5: Spread good karma!

Wonderful information. I especially liked #5: Spread Good Karma. I have had somewhat of a writers block, mainly because my mind is preoccupied by varying circumstances. Every time I sit to write….I feel its pure negative energy. I need to Keep Calm as you say in #3 and wait till things cool down.